


My Last and Best Reason

by yue_ix



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Animal Transformation, Crossover, F/M, Fanart, Inks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-08
Updated: 2011-01-08
Packaged: 2017-11-28 15:54:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/676185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yue_ix/pseuds/yue_ix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the end of their story, both Merlin and Morgana are cursed to turn into animals. Human by day, Morgana turns into a wolf at night, while Merlin is human at night but bound to trees as his namesake by day. They find ways to communicate through earth magic and bond; from there on, they travel together incessantly until one strange day they manage to break the curse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Final work

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zephre (zephrene)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephrene/gifts).



> Merlin BBC fusion with Ladyhawke and The Secret of Kells. Done for the [yuletart](http://yuletart.livejournal.com/) art exchange, for [zephre](http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/). Betas were [lunatique](http://lunatique.dreamwidth.org/), [xenakis](http://xenakis.dreamwidth.org/) and [vensre](http://vensre.livejournal.com/). Thank you all. ♥
> 
> A post with long explanations and a few WIP shots can be found in chapter 2 . I hope you enjoyed! =)


	2. WIP and artist free talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Work in progress shots of my Yuletart exchange. Contains spoilers for the movie "Ladyhawke".

**The story basis**

The way Yuletart works, participants are called in to choose a number of fandoms from a "set" list, but they may also add in a few "wilcard" ones that aren't on that list. While looking at Zephre's list, her two wildcard fandoms were really interesting: Ladyhawke (which I had been interested in since seeing crossover fics with Merlin) and The Secret of Kells. In the former she specified being interested in an almost-reunion between the main characters, and in the style of the latter. I squeed. However, I had not actually seen any of those two, only heard of them, so I couldn't draw for them with a clean mind. Instead, them got crossed with Merlin too. I first only thought I could do one, so focused on Ladyhawke

Next was to choose how to work it. Zephre wanted a happy alternative ending for the traditional legends, and one of her listed relationships was Merlin/Morgana. Since I also want happy times, and that pairing is giving me much angst in the canon, I went with that one. Morgana as a wolf was a striking concept. From there, Merlin became a merlin, to balance as a bird. They could have been different types of animals, but I liked the idea of "forced to walk the earth" versus "forced to fly in the sky", and of Morgana being both part and trapped in the woods (curved towards the ground when transforming), and Merlin bound to light on tree (curved towards the sky when transforming). It felt in sync with the legends of Merlin trapped inside a tree and the both of them forced to wait for an event for eternity.

From there on, the basic concept of the whole was built: they both turn into animals at opposite time of the days, and are forced into looking out for each other until they find a way to break the curse. I had this kind of backstory in my mind of them both thinking the curse was linked to Arthur at first. Merlin would be thinking he needs to wake Arthur up from Avalon, and Morgana thinking she needs to finish him off. So they both walked away from each with hate and distrust, searching for years ways to break their curse. Only, during those years off they'd have a lot of time to think and meet new people outside of the wars for Albion and drive of their duties. Morgana would join the druids for a while, and Merlin travel through villages. Eventually, they'd go lonely, and meet each other again. This time, they'd work together to find a way to break this curse, looking out for each other. This is why I wanted the animals and the humans looking at each other.

More time passes, in which they've rebound themselves to the elements and found ways to communicate through them. Merlin would be like air and wood while Morgana was closer to rocks and water.

Eventually, the curse breaks by itself: they had to both meet as humans at the same time, which happens to be a solar eclipse. This story between them never had anything to do with anyone but them. That moment was to be framed by something, to make it more intimate.

Now, to the images themselves, and what of that all got cut, what got changed and what stayed.

****

The process

  
^ Here in this first sketch, basics were laid down. Ladyhawke didn't show the transformations themselves, but I thought they could add context and explanation to the central drawing, reaffirm the Merlin-sky Morgana-earth link, as well as look pretty good. Wings! Yue (Lunatique) was a lot of help through the whole thing.

 

 

  
^ The framing got completely changed by now. Passing the previous shot through my beloved beta xenakis though, she said to remove or severely stylize the bottom and top frames as they were redundant to having the animals beside the humans in the middle.

As xen is always right, they got hacked, and I moaned the loss of a frame until I revised my story for this and put in a sheath and a sword instead. They both refer to Merlin and Morgana's thinking of Arthur being the cure, and it was a bit of an irony, because while the sheath for me means to protect (should be making it Merlin's for this context) it's what some legends say Morgana stole and allowed her her victory in the final battle, while a sword for me means to attack (which should make it Morgana's) but in the legends it's Merlin who helps Arthur get Excalibur. I loved the added metaphor.

Since so much links to the legends were being added, I threw in knots to tie everything up neatly (ahah). Extra corny moments: the top and bottom ones form HEARTS, and there's a closed '8' eternity loop at the top, next to the ring (sun+moon, but also a ring). *IS THE SAPPIEST PERSON EVER* The crossing lines otherwise were to re-weight the 'almost touching but forever tied' whole point of this crossover. xen the composition goddess also made me play around with the sheath and sword dimensions.

At this point, some more details were added in. Morgana had fur lining her cloak, yet feathers at her belt. Merlin had rows of layers, yet bits of fur on his boots, and the rabbit foot Gaius gave him (cameo from it also [here](http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a349/ykx/oh%20fanart/gaius_escapes-colour.jpg). I love that thing!). Much wolf tutorials were checked, but I'm still not fully pleased with it or the merlin. The fur turned out cool though.

 

  
^ This is where you notice the previous two picture were deceiving you. The sketch was started with an orange pen, in the hopes of enabling me to use pencils to clean everything up before inking. You might have noticed I'm horribly messy. This plan failed when my coloured pencil broke, and I had to switch to regular lead midway through. *facepalm*

In the meanwhile, my third beta, Vensre, was a great support and suggested that pointy rays around the eclipse could finish splitting the image nicely, along with shading the moon. That gave me the idea of using slight textures, which lead to the realization that perhaps I could include some The Legend of Kells, afterall. Woot! Thank you, dear!

 

  
^ Inking & erasing fun time. Textures are done directly in ink, then lineweight covers up mistakes and adds some dynamism. Last, a thicker line surround the principal elements to make them stand out from the bg. This part was fairly conventional, and still my favourite part. Very thin pens were used to create more delicate line, which was a challenge all of its own, but lots of erasing had cleared up my lineart good enough to attempt it.

All in all, it looked good imo. I don't get to do traditional mediums as much as I used to, and this was a pleasure to revisit. =)  
 

Please see chapter 1 for the final work. Thank you for reading and checking out this work! :D

**Author's Note:**

> This work can also be found [here on tumblr](http://yue-ix.tumblr.com/post/3237556565/my-last-and-best-reason-by-frigg-yue-ix-this)


End file.
